Welcome to Retirement Unpacked with Al Smith, owner of Golden Eagle Financial. You want a retirement plan that alleviates your fears about the future so you know your money will last. As a chartered financial consultant, Al Smith will help you find a balance between the risk and reward of the market and the safety of your retirement income. And now, here’s your host, Al Smith. Welcome to another program of Retirement Unpacked. I want to thank you for tuning in. I appreciate your listenership. I’m going to talk about some things today that you may or may not be faced with, but a lot of people will be faced with it going into the future. I know I talk when being prepared for retirement, I talk about unforeseen events. Well, not being able to take care of yourself, that’s about a 50% probability. And that may occur very gradually over a long period of time, and it might be a little easier to deal with, but sometimes those kinds of things just really pop up. And younger people, by younger people, I mean people like in their 50s and 60s, are often faced with, well, what will we do with mom because she goes out to the mailbox and gets confused when she comes back, it’s only a block from her house. or if she tries to drive somewhere, she gets lost, things of this nature. And we’re really blessed this afternoon because John Rush is here, and he has some specific things to talk about this, because it’s something we all may be faced with, either ourselves or family members. Well, John, what’s going on with you right now? Well, Al, thank you, by the way, for inviting me. I appreciate it. I told everybody on my program last couple of days I’d be here today, so if you’re all listening, I appreciate it very much. I thank Al for being a part of my program on a routine basis, and I appreciate, Al, when you asked me to come here. But everything you just said, spot on. I think a lot of people have this attitude of, oh, you know, it’s either not going to happen to me or that’s a long way off. And, Al, what I will tell you is, and Charlie and I, my engineer, talk about this off-air quite often, as we age, No matter how you look at it, the years roll by faster. And I can tell you that in my own life, I’ll be 60 this year, and I will tell you it just seems like yesterday I turned And so that idea that as we get older, time goes by faster, it really does. And where I’m going with this, Al, is a lot of us, myself included, sort of have this attitude, oh, that’s a long ways off. You know, dealing with some of the things you just mentioned a moment ago, that’s a long way off. I don’t need to really be thinking about that. Why do I even need to plan around that? It’s going to be a long time before I actually get there or before we as a family have to deal with anything. I’ll just, I’ll deal with it when it comes. Well, Al, here’s the reality. It always comes. And it’s coming a lot faster than people think. And I think where, you know, folks like you and even Michael Bailey come into play is, Do we, have we been fiscally responsible enough as individuals to make things easier on our next of kin? and or do we as next of kin have we enabled ourselves financially to be able to take care of some of those things as they come along because by the way it’s not always a one-sided coin when these things happen in most cases at least what i have found and what i’ve heard and the people that i’ve talked to and had experience with it ends up being a two-sided coin to where typically it’s not only those that need the care that are being affected financially it’s the people that are doing the caring that are also affected financially. Right, well caregivers, they are a special group of people. Absolutely. They really sacrifice and they suffer their own problems. There’s often depression for caregivers if someone is caring for a loved one because maybe it’s not financially feasible for that loved one to move to a nursing home or assisted living or something. Right. If you know anyone who’s a caregiver, offer to watch that person so the caregiver can go out for a meal or go to the movies or maybe go visit. Or sleep even, Al. Sometimes they just need some rest. No, you’re absolutely right. Get some rest. And I have the same thing going on in terms of a year goes by or 10 years go by, and, oh, it just really flies by. And there’s a real mathematical reason for that. My granddaughter will be, well, she is 16 and a half. And she’s been driving on her permit for quite a long time. We went to Grand Junction. She drove half the way back. She drove back from Texas with her parents. So she’s driven a lot, but she’s had to wait because of the rules to get her driver’s license. That year that she’s had to wait seems like an eternity for her, not only because she’s waiting to get her driver’s license, but because that year represents about 8% of her life. Good point. When you’re 60 or 70 years old, a year represents less than 2% of your life. It’s just a sliver. The opposite. It’s a sliver of time. Good point. And you’re thinking, well, I hope by next year I’ll be as sharp as I am this year. And the next thing you know, next year is gone. You can’t wait for summer. and you get your summer clothes out and you blink an eye and all of a sudden the nights are cooler, the days are shorter, and the only exception to that as far as how long it lasts seems like the cold weather lasts nine months and summer lasts six weeks. But the preparation, I talk a lot about long-term care and how it’s really important, but it’s also important to, even if there’s plenty of finances available, a lot of times there are no places for people who need care, places in nursing homes. places physical places yeah exactly availability and like like in other words because I’m finding some of this there’s waiting lists and things along those lines to where you really need to be on top of that and even have a list of places you may be looking at and if you’re Feeling like hey, we’ve got a family member that may be headed this direction I would highly advise you start looking at those facilities and in a lot of cases out of your point You’re gonna find yourself on a waiting list or that person will be on a waiting list and and that’s where it gets dicey Alice because you may not know the exact time that you’re actually gonna need these things The problem is once you know, you need it. You don’t have time now to be on a waiting list either It’s a it’s a catch-22 Well, it really is. If someone’s mental capacity is deteriorating slowly, but they’re able to take care of themselves at present, I would highly recommend you investigate alternative places for that parent or sister, whatever it is, to live. Unfortunately, some people are doing great and then all of a sudden they have a stroke and that puts people really behind the eight ball because then even if there’s plenty of financial resources, then what do you do? Do you investigate? Well, let’s see home health care. That is great, but if you had to have that 24-7, it would cost about four times the cost of a nursing home. And the idea of a nursing home, there may or may not be availability, and some of those are far better than others. So it’s a real dilemma when people reach that stage in life. A few people I know that have larger families, they sort of take turns. So-and-so will be with mom for the next two weeks, and then so-and-so will be with mom for the next month. And families that have four or more children are blessed and able to do that, assuming each of those four sons or daughters can step up to the plate. But that’s pretty much the exception. Good point. No, and I think where you come into play as well, Al, and this is for all of you listening, and I’m not Al, so I’m not a financial advisor, but I know that Everything we’re talking about exists. I also know that the sooner you start planning for these sorts of things, whether it be in your own life or the life of a family member, The sooner you start, Al, the better. What I mean by that is, some of you listening that may be in your 30s or 40s, for example, you have the ability, and Al, I know, can do this, you have the ability to even look at policies of long-term care and things along those lines that are fairly affordable at that stage of life, where, by the way, Al, when you’re 70, buying long-term care gets almost impossible to do. So my point is, You really need to look forward, because I’m guessing, and I don’t know the stats, Al, this is your world, not mine, but I’m guessing that far too many people think, I’ve got my nest egg put together. We can retire, we’ll be comfortable, and so on. Providing there’s none of what we just talked about happening, because I know just the whole nursing home end of things, and I, folks, really quick, just numbers that get thrown around. You could be anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000 a month to go to nursing care, depending upon the type of facility that your loved one’s going to go to. Do the math on that, Al. Even at $10,000 a month, that chews up $120,000 in a year like that. Boy, it certainly does. And a lot of folks who are watching their pennies and so forth have come to a circumstance where they can live comfortably on maybe $6,000 or $7,000 a month, sometimes even less than that. But if long-term care, especially memory care, that’s more expensive than regular long-term care, that’s going to double or triple that cost of living. And if there are not adequate resources, people rely on Medicaid. Oh boy. That’s a whole other world. It totally is, because it permits the non-Medicaid spouse to have certain assets, not a lot of assets, just a little bit. They will literally, for all of you listening, some of you know this, some of you younger people don’t know this. and now you do, they will literally look at your entire asset list and literally at that point, it’s the old golden rule. They now have the gold. They’re going to rule over you. They’re going to tell you what you’re able to keep and not keep all the way down to, I’ve read the rules, so much for housing, so much for what you can leave in the bank account. One car, for example. I mean, we go down the list and they literally will then make you spend down everything else before they kick in. That’s absolutely right. Until January of this year, for about the last year and a half, I would drive an Air Force veteran and a retiree of the Denver Police Department to church. He lived in a nursing home that’s called Hallmark. It’s right near the intersection of Quincy and Lowell. And he, as a retired police officer, had a pension of about $8,000 a month, and he was able to leave some of his financial assets to his children, but his entire pension of $8,000 a month, that went to Hallmark. And he would get small disbursements from his children to keep in his checking account. And he would be very restrictive. If he had a bottle of wine, he’d have to hide it. He wasn’t allowed to keep his firearm in his room, so I hung on to his firearm on his behalf because he was technically part of the security team as he sat in the back of the church. But I got a real glimpse of what that was like. And he was cognitively a little better off than a lot of the other people there. But he used his phone for, I don’t even think he texted. He used the phone and voicemail. He didn’t use the computer or anything like that. And he was there for a number of years. So I got a pretty clear picture of what that’s like. It’s a lot more restrictive, and some of you out there listening have been through this, some of you have not. Some of you are just getting into this, and what I will tell you now, literally that whole topic we just went through, I am pretty convinced, pretty sure you could spend two or three of your shows dealing with that one topic alone and what you need to do to be prepared for those things, which by the way, most are not. Well, I totally agree with that, and whether someone chooses to purchase long-term care insurance, you can also purchase life insurance, which will advance the death benefit if you qualify for long-term care, or if you’re young enough, you can set aside money into a financial product that will grow into a nest egg that You hope you won’t need, but if you do, it’s going to be there, which is better. We need a crystal ball to know, but the certainty is the statistics tell us that about 50% of the people who reach age 65 will need care for 90 days or longer. And about half of those will need care for like a couple years or longer. And so those are statistics that just kind of jump out at you. And women are more likely to need care for a longer period than men just because they live longer. Right. Right. Again, folks listening, please get with Al. These are big things. And what I mean by that is you may not even be the person that’s needing the care. You still should sit and have a chat with Al to determine what all’s going on, what are your options, what could you be doing differently as you move forward in that stage of life, not only for yourself, but for your loved ones as well. In my own family, my father, I don’t know if it was dementia or Alzheimer’s or what, but my mother took care of him for a long period of time. He spent only the last couple months in a nursing home because his behavior was so outlandish that she could no longer care for him, but she provided the care for him for literally years. And my mother was able to be completely independent until she passed from pancreatic cancer. So our family, my siblings and I, didn’t have to deal with that hardly at all. But my mother, she was the real hardcore caregiver. And we’re going to talk the second half of this show about how people can create a bucket list, but a bucket list of ways to give back and to provide blessings to those who need it by volunteering. Al Smith of Golden Eagle Financial offers a free initial consultation for potential clients to learn what he can do for you. Al wants you to know that the process is simple, comprehensive, and effective, and that there’s no reason to avoid it. He digs deeper than other financial advisors. He wants to know what you want your retirement to look like. If you want to travel the world, Al will help you know when you can start. If you’d like to relocate or buy property, he’ll make sure that you know what steps you need to take to make it happen. Al knows that about half of retirees will need some sort of long-term health care, so he’ll make sure you’re prepared for that reality. Contact Al Smith at Golden Eagle Financial today for a free in-person or Zoom consultation to discover how he can help you. Just go to klzradio.com slash money to find out how. Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC, a registered investment advisor. BCM and Golden Eagle Financial Limited are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM, but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents. Welcome back to Retirement Unpacked. John and I were talking about how we really need to be prepared for those final years of our life because we don’t know where we’re going to be spending those. And if we have a parent who is going through that circumstance, We don’t know exactly how that’s going to work either. So the more preparation you do, both financially and logistically, because sometimes you may have an enormous nest egg, but there may be no availability for assisted living or whatever you’re looking for in that area. And what I’d like to talk about in the second half of the show, I help people prepare financially for retirement, but I think in order to have a really fulfilling retirement, you need to kind of find how you’d like to be spending your time. A lot of people I know spend a lot of time volunteering. And once I started to research this, it’s such an enormous topic, I could spend, you know, show after show after show about all the availability. But, John, I know you spend an enormous amount of time doing things to You know for your show and so forth, but I’d be willing to bet a lot of your clients and the people with whom you’re affiliated have all kinds of volunteer opportunities they do absolutely and I think really what you’re saying Al is Find your purpose during retirement. And that could be in any number of things. And it could be even different for you two as a couple. I mean, one may want to go volunteer and do something in one place. One may want to go do it. I’ve literally, Al, probably since I was a teenager, found different things to volunteer in and for on a pretty routine basis. And I’ll also tell you this. you need to set boundaries around some of those volunteer things as well, which is all a part of this plan also. What I mean by that is organizations, and I love them, but they’ll suck the life out of the volunteers that are there if you don’t put boundaries around how often you’ll be there and do the things for them that are needed. In other words, every volunteer organization has, Al, multiple jobs that are needed to be filled. and they have a hard time telling you not to continue to volunteer for more and more because they want the help. So the reality is, you yourself have to have that ability of saying, yes, this is my passion, yes, this is my purpose, but I also have to put a box around that and know that this is all I can do on any given week because I still have family, grandkids, a spouse, these other things that I need to take care of as well, and I don’t want to be heavy on one side, and that balance is where I’m going. I want to make sure that I’m balanced so that my volunteer life equals what I’m doing in my personal life as well. Boy, you’re absolutely right, and the volunteer organizations, some of them are really terrific, but they don’t have a special safe place to go if you’re burnt out from volunteering. They do not. And again, Al, I love all of them. This is not a knock against churches or volunteer organizations at all. They don’t even realize sometimes this is what’s happening. Now, some good ones will say, listen, hey, Al, slow down a little bit. We’ve got some other people that can fill in these particular areas, so we’ve got that covered. And some are really good about that. Others, on the other hand, will say, sure, Al, go ahead and take that next job on. And now you’re doing three jobs for them. And where I’m going with this is just like anything else in life, with the finances, make sure your balance is where it needs to be so that you’re not overloaded in any one area. It comes with even the investing side of it that you do, Al. You can’t be totally invested in one area and forget about something else. You have to have that balance. And the same happens once you get to retirement, I believe. Well, balance is really important and some organizations, they seem to be better structured for listening to you and what you’re able to do and so forth. Some of them rely totally online and I know a lot of retired people. They don’t want to do the QR code or the online. They want to call somebody and say, oh, I noticed the Backpack Society in Highlands Ranch, they provide food, especially for kids who normally get food at their schools, but when it comes to weekends and places like that, a lot of them actually have difficulty having enough food, and you also provide groceries to families. And I know your organization, Backpack Society, received the nonprofit of the year, but when I call, it only goes to voicemail, and I have trouble negotiating your website. Now, that’s not true of this particular organization, but I just gave an example I knew another gentleman who wanted to volunteer at the Denver Museum, the one that’s right there by the zoo. And he started going to orientation, and his orientation was he had to be, you know, very up on top of what people want to be called with their pronouns and so forth. And he decided he didn’t want to volunteer somewhere where he had to pay attention to political correctness and things of this nature. But there’s another organization that I would highly recommend to anybody that loves horses and loves to help people, but doesn’t have the finances to go buy a ranch and put a bunch of horses on it. It’s called The Right Step. They have horses off of Coal Mine Road in Jefferson County. And they give rides to pretty severely disabled children and adults. And these people who ride these horses very slowly, they just kind of walk them around, they get enormous enjoyment from this. And the people who volunteer, They just kind of walk the horses around and they’re able to call people and schedule things. And it’s really a tremendous thing. It’s been around since about 2008. It’s called The Right Step. And if you’d like to walk disabled people around who are sitting on horses and getting joy in their life, give them a call. Absolutely, and I’ve been associated with a few of those types of organizations up on the north end of the metro area, Al, and years and years ago even donated some horses and things like that back in the day to those types of organizations. And therapeutic riding, I think, is what they call that, and it is enormously beneficial for those individuals that are disabled. It’s huge. And something that a lot of people who haven’t volunteered don’t realize is that as long as you keep it within the amount of time that you’re comfortable spending, the joy that the volunteers get even exceeds the joy of those who are receiving the help get. You get a really good feeling after walking a horse around and seeing a Maybe a severely autistic child or maybe a downed child or an adult with some severe disability. You see the big smile on their face. That just emotes and makes you feel like, hey, this is a good day. Absolutely. So what I will add on behalf of you, Al, it’s pretty hard to volunteer later in life when you’re trying to figure out where your next meal is coming from. So to be able to do those things, you need some planning on the front side financially to make sure you’ve got the wherewithal to do that. Boy, you’re absolutely right, because if you need to work part-time to make ends meet, you probably don’t have the energy to spend a lot of time volunteering. So one of the joys of retirement is knowing that you have adequate resources so that your time doesn’t need to be spent looking for, well, gee, how can my wife and I bring in an extra $1,000 a month because the Property taxes and utilities and everything have soared beyond what we were expecting. Absolutely. And again, that’s where folks Little commercial for al this is stuff where you’ve got a plan on the front side to make sure you’re able to do this Also planning and we talked about al on the first half which is some of those what-ifs, you know, what if this happens? what if that happens you got to make sure that you’re protected and I get it no one’s got a crystal ball you and I neither one have one but I think you need to look at what all of these potential scenarios would be and how do we best deal with those now when we’re younger when we’re in our 40s and 50s or even 60s how do we deal with that now so when that time comes we’re more able to take care of that. Boy, that is very, very wise and I think in addition to being a good saver when you’re young, in addition to that, get a feel for what you like to do with your spare time. Winter Park has a fantastic ski program for the disabled. If you really like to ski and you’re not very fond of volunteering, check that out because there are so many things where you can pursue the things that you enjoy and be a volunteer at the same time. And that becomes much more possible if you know that you have adequate resources for yourself in your own retirement. Absolutely. Al, again, I, number one, just want to say thank you for having me be a part of your program. I appreciate not only you and what you do on my program, but I always enjoy being here with you as well. Well, I thank you for coming on the show, John, because no matter what the topic is, I know you usually have something to input because your life and what you’ve experienced and what you’ve done has been diverse, and there’s not too much I could talk to you about that you don’t already know a little bit about. I appreciate that. Thank you. Oh, you’re welcome. God bless you all for listening. If you’d like to find out if you’re on track for your own retirement, or if things are not going the way you might like financially, give my office a call. We can have our conversation. The number is 303-744-1128. God bless you. Thank you for tuning in. And let’s keep the folks in Israel in our prayers. Thank you for listening to Retirement Unpacked with your host, Al Smith of Golden Eagle Financial. Set up a free consultation with Al today at klzradio.com slash money. Find your purpose in retirement with Golden Eagle Financial. Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC, a registered investment advisor. BCM and Golden Eagle Financial Limited are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM, but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents.